Go with me now to Exodus chapter
3. Exodus chapter 3. Sometimes in Exodus, Moses is
a type of Christ, isn't he? So clearly in chapter 2 is a
deliverer. Chapter 33 there. Here, Moses is a picture of every
chosen, elect child of God who has been spared by God, who is
brought to hear the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ and
Him crucified, be born again, saved by that gospel, saved by
Christ crucified, the burning bush. Moses is his name. It means he was drawn out. Moses was chosen of God. Moses
was born a Hebrew, and he had nothing to do with that. Neither
did we. We were born his people, born
of parents of his choosing, brought up. Moses was spared the river
of death, wasn't he? Many drowned. Many just like
him drowned in that river, but God spared Moses from death. And that's us. That's so many
of us in here. Moses was raised by godless heathen
parents in an ungodly world. I'm talking
about Pharaoh's daughter, not Amram and Jacob. I believe they
knew the Lord. But Pharaoh's daughter became
his mother, and he was raised in an ungodly world. He grew
up in the world. He was of the world, thinking
only of the world, riches and fame. That was Moses' life until
he was 40 years old. And such were some of you. Moses
didn't know God, but God knew him. Moses didn't call on God,
but God called him. Moses didn't ever think about
God, but God never quit thinking about Moses. Is that you? That is us. What's going to happen
to Moses? What's going to become of Moses? What will become of us? Just
wait and you'll see. Wait. Moses, his whole sinful,
worldly life in Egypt, 40 years he was in Egypt, his whole sinful,
worldly, vain life was bringing him to this place, to this place
to see a burning bush on a mountain. His whole life brought him to
this place and his former life as Pharaoh's son and of Egypt
is over, changed. His mind, his heart, Moses is
born again when he sees this bush burning. This is when he
forsook it all to bear the reproach of God's people and wander into
wilderness. And that's what happens to all
of God's people when they see, when they hear the gospel of
Christ and Him crucified and see His glory. They're born again. New heart, new mind. Everything
changes. Like Exodus 12, the Lord said,
this is the beginning of the month's beginning. It all begins
right now. The rest of Moses' life, that
is his true life, begins right now. You know, we need to be crucified
with Christ, don't we? We need to be crucified to the
world and the world to us. And that's what happened to Moses,
right here. Right here. And everything, God, everything,
for 40 years, it's not all recorded, what happened to Moses in Midian
and Egypt even. But he was raised in Egypt, wasn't
he? I believe he would have been
the next Pharaoh, don't you? Pharaoh's daughter? Mindy and
I watched that movie again, The Ten Commandments. Pretty good,
pretty good movie. Pretty close to the depicted
Moses as in line to be Pharaoh. Well, I believe he was. I believe
he was. But when he saw this bush, him would be the son of Pharaoh.
Daughter would be the son of God. It's the only thing that
will do it, Christ's crucifix. Everything in the life of every
believer is to bring you to hear the gospel, to give you life,
and then life begins. Moses, it said in verse 1, Moses
kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert,
came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Moses was keeping
the flock, and Moses was leading the flock, and Moses was feeding
the flock, not knowing that God was keeping him. That God was
leading him. That God all His time had been
feeding him. Isn't that true? Isn't that true? So many years. Kept by the power
of God. Not knowing. And he was brought
to a mountain. Moses was brought to a mountain
called Horeb. The name Horeb means desolate. The Lord brought him to the backside
of a desert, to a mountain that's called desolate, to do what? To see a sight, to hear His voice. You read with me. Well, go to
Hebrews 12. You didn't read this. You read
Hebrews 13. But Hebrews 12, go quickly there. Hebrews 12 tells
this. And brothers and sisters, Horeb
is where Moses got the law. Horeb is where it all took place,
where God spoke to Moses and he came down from the mountain.
Horeb is where the bush was burning. It all represents Christ. Everything
we receive from God comes through Christ. And it comes through
the Gospel. We hear in the Gospel. What does
this mount represent? Mount Horam, desolate. Hebrews
12, verse 18. Hebrews 12, 18. You are not come
to the mountain that might be touched and burned with fire
under blackness and darkness and tempest. Verse 22. Verse
22. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
unto the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem. to innumerable
company of angels, to the general assembly, and to the church of
the firstborn." What does this mountain represent? His church.
Mount Zion. Where are you going to hear the
gospel? Where does the Lord bring you to hear the gospel? Huh?
In His church. You're going to hear it from
Him. If you hear it from Him, you'll hear it through a man preaching the gospel.
That's just so. It's just so with me. Is it so with you? It's
so with everybody. And it's a desolate place. It's
outside the camp. You won't find it in town. I started thinking this morning
of all the grace churches. I can only think of one that
was in town. The rest of them are out of town.
You have a hard time finding them. Like Fairmont. To this day, to go to Katie,
I still get lost. Where is this place? Well, that's
fitting then because you're going to, it's going to take some effort
to get there. God bless that. If you seek,
you'll finally search with all your heart. And, but, you know,
Kingsport, way out there. This church, three miles out
of town. This is Mount Zion. Not horrible, desolate, meaning
when you hear the gospel, it's going to make you desolate. You're
going to feel like you're all alone. Moses heard from the Lord
and he was all alone. And I can't tell you how many
times that people have said to me when they first heard the
truth, you were just speaking to me. I felt like I was the
only one in there. Isn't it so? I remember. I remember
when the Lord started dealing with me. I thought, He's pointing
right at me. I thought, He's pointing at me.
I'm the man. Thank God. Desolate. Desolate. Go back to our text. Most go to church, you know that? Most go to church to hear the
music, the sermon, see friends, and be seen, see and be seen,
socialize, make a pretense of worship. If you're chosen of
God, if you're brought to the church of God, outside the camp,
to a place that is desolate, backside of a desert, You're not going to hear from
anybody. You're not going to see anything. You're not going to want to be
seen. What you're going to hear is Him. And you're going to see
Christ high and lifted up. And you're not going to go to
church from then on. You're going to be the church. God bless His holy name. He brought
us. I came to church for all the
wrong reasons. I did. I wanted a job. I wanted
a girl. Not knowing. Not knowing. God chose him to
be his bride. I heard from him. God brings
us to his church to hear the gospel, to see the glory of Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Now Moses, now Moses, now Moses. This is how you can read it.
Now Moses. Now it begins. Moses, 40 years
old. His mind, his heart. You know
a 40 year old, what can you tell a 40 year old? Your ways are
pretty set, aren't they, when you're 40? What about a 60 or
70-year-old? Mandy's grandmother, the Lord
revealed Himself to her when she was in her late 60s or early
60s. Abraham was 75 years old. What can you tell, teach, do,
change? How can you change a 40-year-old? You can't. God did. And God is going to unlearn Moses
learned everything he learned in Egypt. Moses left Egypt with
a degree in Egyptology. With a degree in political science.
He's going to be the next Pharaoh. He had all these degrees. They're
worthless. His whole life. And now he's
going to forget it all. And he was going to be something.
Now he's going to be nothing. He was going to be Pharaoh. Now
he's going to be a fool for Christ's sake. What about you? Forty years old. Fresh out of
Egypt. Now he's in Midian. That's a
heathen place. Midian. I forgot what it meant.
I wrote it down. But anyway. Midian. He's among
heathen. His in-laws are heathen. They're
lost. He's fresh out of Egypt. He's
settled down to a little life in the country with a wife and
a little flock and the old family now. He's living the good life
now. No thoughts of God, no thoughts
of Christ, no thoughts of eternity. He says, I'm just going to settle
down and just take it easy until... What about you? When did the Lord
deal with you? So that's Moses. Now Moses. What
about God? Now Moses, this is what Moses
was doing, but God, this is what God's going to do. God brought
him to this place, this mountain, and God brought you to either
this place or some place where the Gospels preach to reveal
Himself to you. And God reveals Himself and God
speaks to all His people through the Gospel, which is Christ's
crucifixion. And Moses said, I'm going to
turn aside. The angel of the Lord, verse 2, the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the
bush. Moses looked. Behold, the bush
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Moses said,
I'm going to turn aside and see this, this gray side, why the
bush is not burned. Moses saw this far off, and he
had a curiosity. He said, I'm going to go there.
I'm going to look at this. I'll see this. You know, the
lot is cast into the lap. The whole disposing there is
up the door. I love that scripture, don't you? There was a day when
you turned in here and said, I'm going to turn in there and
see what... I really believe this is God's
church. I know this is God's gospel. I know that. And if it
is, this must be God's church. And there are several others.
And that's where he has his people turning. He turns them aside. Turn us, O Lord, and we'll be
turned. Turned where? We need to be turned to God.
No. Turned from the world to God. Turned from our sin to Christ. Turned. And you and I decided
to go to church one day, but bless God, he had decided everything
before the world began. There's a day like Moses, a day
determined of the Lord before the world began, the day of your
birth when you're going to see Christ high and lifted up. And
we pray that for our children, our grandchildren, and others.
And verse 4 says, when he turned aside, when Moses, this Lord,
saw that he turned aside, God called him out of the midst of
the bush. He said, Moses, Moses. He said,
here am I. That bush, we're going to see
in a minute, that bush is Christ crucified. It burns. God was
in Christ. You notice that God was speaking
from that bush. It says the angel of the Lord,
but it says God's foe. Which is it? It's both. The angel
is the messenger of God. Christ is called the messenger
of the covenant in Malachi 3. The messenger of the covenant.
God's messenger. The faithful witness. The son
of the most high God. The word of God himself. Personified. He's the one that speaks to us.
He's the one God speaks through in it. The great high priest.
The messenger of the covenant. God was in Christ. But that man
was not just a man. That's God who spoke to us. Calling unto him out of the bush,
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Now listen to what God said.
Listen to what the Lord said. And I believe this was the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking to him. Don't you? I believe every time,
except when our Lord was on this earth and the Lord Father spoke,
I believe every time that God spoke to some people on the earth
in the Old Testament, it was Christ speaking. He's the Word. Listen to what He said. And this
is what God says to every single one of His elect. Listen to what
He said. This is what Moses first heard,
first thing Moses heard from God. out of that burning bush.
Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet. The place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Don't come near me. Take off
your shoes. You're on holy around. I listened to my father preach
from there, and he said if I had one message, if I could choose
one message for the whole world to hear, he said if I could choose
one message for everyone to hear, not only God's people, but everybody
who's never heard the truth, everybody, those who don't know
God, that don't know Christ, that don't know man, he said
this would be it. The first thing that Moses heard
and the first thing that every one of God's people hears is,
God is holy. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of
hosts. The whole earth is full of thy
glory. Holy and reverend is his name. The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence. Don't rush into the presence
of a holy God. He's holy. Holyness is God's chief attribute. Holiness. You ask the average
person, what is God's chief characteristic? Everyone, except God's people,
will say, God is a consuming fire. That's what this bush represents. Everything about God is immaculately
holy and righteous. He's of two pure eyes, the Scripture
says, to look on iniquity. The scripture says the sun doesn't
shine, the stars don't shine. It says he charges his angels
with folly. What does that mean? It means
God is holy. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He's righteous. He's holy. See, this necessitates Christ
being crucified. This is the whole reason for
the gospel, because God is holy. God created a hell. because he's
holy. A lake of fire wherein he's going
to put everything and everyone that doesn't come to him through
Christ. He's holy. Are you with me? We've heard this so many times.
We're so blessed like Moses, and when we come to this place,
we need to take our shoes off. What does this say about man?
If God's that immaculately pure and holy and righteous and just,
what this says about man is man is the opposite. Man is sinful, full of sin. God is pure. Man is perverted. And in the last days, these last
days, Paul wrote about in 2 Timothy 3, it's so clear, without natural
affection and proud boasters, the last days, it's almost over.
Then what's going to happen? God is going to ball it up and
throw it in the fire. That's how you effectively get
rid of anything. Never see it again. Burn it up. Everything that's not wood, hay,
I mean everything that is wood, hay, and stubble is going to
be burned. And only those things that are gold, silver, and precious
stones will not be consumed. Just the dross will be consumed.
The sin will be taken away. But that gold will be refined
in the fire. Flame is not going to hurt God's
people. I drossed to consume thy gold to refine. How does
that happen? Christ crucified. How blessed we are to know this.
How blessed was Moses to hear this. Why did he hear it? God chose him. God drew him.
God drew him out of the water to draw him to this mountain. Oh, you know, I look back now
and see how many times I escaped from death, certain death. The
Lord did that to bring me to hear the gospel. He says in verse 5, put off thy
shoes from off thy feet. I don't know if you read the
article, but for what it's worth, I thought about this a long time.
I thought, you know, man is corrupt and filthy. And Isaiah 1, it
describes man. And how does it begin to describe
him? From the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. There's no sound to say it. There's
no part of him that's not corrupt. His mind, his feet, his walk,
his ways, everything about him. And he went on in Genesis 6 to
say, his whole imagination of his thoughts are evil, only evil,
continually. Isn't that sad? Shoes cover, you might disagree with it, but
I believe feet are ugly. They are. And we wear a covering.
We don't wear clothes to cover our neck in the snow. As Matthew
Henry said, man's proud of that which God created to cover sin. Man's proud of it. And we put on these coverings
like shoes. Like shoes cover the ugliest
part, the stinkiest part. Doesn't take long for our feet
to stink, does it? A man wears his covering with pride. He wears
his various clothing and shoes to put on some kind of persona
or make you taller, make you tougher, and make you nothing. God says, take it off. Take it
off. Come naked. Take your clothes
off. Somebody said the straight way
is so narrow, you have to take all your clothes off to get through.
Take your shoes off. Don't walk in pride. Walk in
humility. Put off the old man. Put on the
new. You know, there was only two
feet that walked this planet. They were beautiful. Sinless feet. His feet. May I say it this way? Yes, I'm
going to say it this way. His body, He was sinless. And His body smelled like spices. When He would remove His shoes,
the sweet smelling savor would fill the room. Why? Because how beautiful are the
feet of Him that bringeth glad tidings. That's Christ. And yet man took those feet Those feet that went about doing
good, those feet that were always in search of His lost sheep,
they weren't coming after Him, they were going after their man's
self. Let's nail those feet to the cross so they don't go anywhere
anymore. We're tired of Him being around.
Get out of here. That's where you'll see the holiness
of God and the depravity of man. The only place you really see
what man is, is at Calvary. Let's nail his good, beautiful
feet to the cross. Let's nail those hands that did
nothing but good for everybody around him. Let's nail them to
the cross. And you think God loves everybody.
God loves those who know why Christ hung there and who are
ashamed of their sin and glory in Christ crucified. They come
to God that way, John. They know it. That should have
been me. Should have nailed my sorry,
wretched feet to the cross. Should have put my hands that
did nothing but sin all my life. Nail me there. But Christ said,
no. Nail me. That's who God loves. That's
who God's going to bring to himself. That's who God's going to forgive.
That's who they're going to see. That lamb as it had been slain. Take your shoes off. I'm holy. Nowhere is the holiness of God
seen, the sinfulness of man seen, the pride of evil man seen more
clearly than at Calvary. Nowhere. The angel in the burning bush
is Christ. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant. And what happened in verse 2? Look at it. The angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush. And he looked. Behold, the bush
burned with fire. The wrath of God. God, it wasn't,
it was man that put him on the cross and yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. It was God that, man did what
his wicked hands and heart did, but he did what God determined
before to be done. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him and make him a sacrifice. Why? He did nothing wrong. I did everything
wrong. He did it for his people. Substitute. You wouldn't do that for me,
would you? You wouldn't do it for a criminal,
that's for sure. Everybody Christ did it for was a criminal. Behold,
that's the reason Scripture said, Behold what manner of love. Herein
is love, not that we loved him. God's people never talk about
their love for him. Never. Talk about his love. Unto him
that loved us and washed us, how? In his own blood. Isn't
that amazing? Amazing love, amazing grace.
We sing that song, Amazing Grace. We know a little bit about how
amazing it is. It saved a wretch like me, a
God-hater, a Christ-killer. Our Lord poured out His wrath,
His burning. God, who is a consuming fire,
hung His Son on Calvary's tree, and the wrath of God fell down
on His Son, and the Lord Jesus Christ went through hell. And people use that term loosely,
and I'm ashamed of it. I've used it too. Hell. I heard a man one time I worked
on the railroad with said, I know I'd go to hell if I died right
now. I said, no you don't. You'd be on your knees begging
the Lord. We don't know anything much about hell. Our Lord spoke
of it more than anybody. And the closest we'll know of
what hell is, is Christ crucified. Hell is separation from God.
God is love. God is mercy. God is grace. God is peace. God is goodness. God is gentleness. All the fruit,
it comes from God. All these good things. Without
God, there's no good anywhere at all. Nothing but filth and
wretchedness. Hell is where God is not. God
is still in this world with His people. And so we experience
some mercy, don't we? Some grace. Great grace. Goodness. If God, one of these days when
He takes His people out, all hell is going to break loose. Like Sodom. Burned up. That's all God has to do is remove
Himself. But why doesn't He? His people.
His people. His elect. That bush burned. That bush burned. Christ suffered
the wrath, the fiery wrath of God who's consuming fire on Calvary's
tree. He went through hell and he cried
the first words out of his mouth, my God, my God, why? That's that
forsaken man. Why? Why? If he doesn't forsake
Christ, he'll forsake me. That burning bush is Christ.
That's why he cried another time. He said, I thirst. Flame. Wrath. Separation from
God. Forsaken of God. But it was not
consumed. Moses turned aside to see this
bush. He said, I've got to see this.
This bush is burning, but it's not consumed. What is this bush? It's a lowly shrub, isn't it?
It's a plant that God planted on this mountain. It's a lowly
shrub, a lowly plant, it's nothing to nobody. Not God, it's something,
it's everything. Look, it's on fire, it's burning,
but it's not consumed. That's Christ, that's His humanity
without sin, was made to be sin. God made Him to be sin for His
people. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. What's that mean?
It means we have nothing to do with our righteousness. If we're
righteous, we have nothing to do with it. Who did it? Christ
did it. He is made on earth righteous. You know that. You know how blessed
you are? When Moses left this place, he knew everything. He
did. He saw everything. He saw Christ
as all His hope, all His righteousness, all His sin payment and covering. That bush was not consumed. And
Scripture says God didn't leave Christ's soul in hell or suffer His Holy One to seek
corruption. Our Lord was forsaken of God
and He was buried in the earth out of sight of man, out of mind
of man, he's gone. No, he's not. Putting the dirt, when we're
putting the dirt, you know what's going to happen? We're going
to be consumed. We're going to rot. We've got to get these bodies
in the ground real fast because they'll take after four days.
Not him. Not him. He came forth. Because he did what he did. Because
he lived as he lived. Because he died as he died. Because
of what he did, glorified God's name, paid for the sins of God's people.
God is well pleased with what he did. And God gave the order
three days later, go down and roll that stone back. Bring him out of prison. The
price has been paid. The penalty has been served.
Hell has been visited by the Son of Man. Bring Him out. And a few days later, He walked
on into glory, the King of glory, and look behind Him. Everybody
He died for. Look at Moses, verse 6. It said,
God said, I am the God of thy father, and we're going to look
at that more fully. I need a whole message for I
am. He said, I am the God of thy
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Salvation is of the Jews. And
Moses hid his face. He was afraid to look on God. You see that fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Those who hear from God will
hear from God through the gospel of Christ crucified. And those
that see the holiness of God, the wrath of God falling on Christ
that should have fallen on us, it will make you afraid. It will
make you fear God. It will make you hide your face. Fear and humility. The only place
humility will really be found is at Calvin. God forbid. Paul had said, I'm
not much to Gloria, but he said, when I saw Christ, God forbid
that I should go. Let me just cover my face. You
know, the Lord forced, literally forced the world for a time to
cover their faces, how fitting it was. to stop their mouths for a little
while. But God's people do it all the
time. God does it through the preachers of the gospel all the
time. Like Job, he said, I've heard you, now I see you. I'm
going to stop my mouth. Stop my mouth. Only Christ crucified
will do that. No pride. What have we got to
be proud of? That's why Christ died. He died
for that pride. So, Moses, I thought about this. Moses took his shoes off. You
think he went down from that mountain barefooted? No. I think he got the same shoes
that the children of Israel got and they lasted 40 years. And
you know what happens to God's people when they hear the gospel?
They are shied with that gospel from then on. They don't walk
in pride. They walk in humility. They don't
walk according to the course of the world. They walk with
God. They don't walk with the world. They walk with God. They walk
in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. They walk in
newness of life. They walk by faith. They walk
in love. They walk in Jacob. Like old
Jacob. He's limping. Now Moses got new
shoes on. And they're the most comfortable
shoes he's ever worn. And he's going to wear them for
40 years. And they're not going to wear
out, and they're going to get more comfortable as you go. Is this
gospel not sweeter to you than the day you heard it? So now Moses, and I quit. Moses
is going to preach and teach the people. But you know what?
He's going to have to hear it himself first. He can't teach
them what he doesn't know. Dad used to say, you can't tell
what you don't know any more than you come back and where
you ain't been. Where was Moses? On the mountain
before the cross. What's Moses going to do from
then on? A little while later, you're going to see him holding
up a serpent on top of him. In a while, you're going to see
him parting the water. That's Christ's cleft. Moses is going to lead
the people. Moses is going to feed the people.
Before he leads the people, he feeds the people. He's got to
be led. He's got to be fed. So it is with every man that
the Lord chooses to go preach and feed and lead his people.
Like Paul said, I give unto you, 1 Corinthians 15, I preach to
you that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scripture. Paul, what do you got to say?
I'm going to tell you what I've seen and what I've heard. That's how you know. That's how
you knew Moses was his man. And that's how you know it to
death. That's how you know. And Moses followed God, and the
people followed Moses. Didn't they? They could. Why? He's following Christ. He's seen
the Savior. And Moses loved the Lord, loved
his people. And some of them loved him. Bless
his holy name. Alright. John, you come, ladies. Number 110. 110. Alas, and did
my Savior bleed, would my Sovereign die? 110.